ROME — Italy’s government yesterday said it plans to rush out measures such as blacking out hate sites on the Internet to protect politicians after a weekend assault on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi left him hospitalized.

The 73-year-old billionaire businessman — nursing a broken nose, fractured teeth and gashed lips after being hit in the face by a thrown object — will be discharged from the hospital today with orders to rest for two weeks, his doctor said.

Berlusconi put on a brave face in his first public message since his hospitalization.

“I repeat to everyone to stay calm and confident,” Berlusconi said to supporters on his Web site. “Love always wins over jealousy and hatred.”

As Italy spent a second day soul-searching over whether a vitriolic political climate prompted the assault, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the Cabinet would issue urgent measures tomorrow to keep Italians and their leaders safe.

Citing the risk of a “dangerous spiral of copycat attacks,” Maroni said the government is considering obscuring Web sites or social-network groups that incite violence.

It will also consider new rules for gatherings in public places.

Conservative lawmakers have been incensed by Facebook groups that have sprung up praising Massimo Tartaglia, 42, the Berlusconi assailant with a history of mental illness.

Tartaglia has written to him apologizing for his “cowardly and rash act.” But allies say the normally irrepressible premier is badly shaken and at one point even asked a visiting priest: “Why do they hate me to this point?”